Friday, February 27, 2015

The current debate going on in Wisconsin on a so-called “Right to Work” law (that bans agreements between companies and unions that all
employees of the company need to join the union or pay a fee equivalent to
membership dues) brought to the surface a great illustration of when first
impressions can steer you wrong.I like
bringing these examples up because I often discuss examples of when instinct is
superior to conscious and focused information processing.I have covered the cognitive and
neuropsychological reasons for this before (for example here).

I don’t want to bring up whether this is a good law or a bad
law or whether unions are positive or negative for the economy or for society.These topics could be the subject of dozens
of posts.

No, what I want to think about today is which side of this issue the small
“l” libertarian should be on (for the uninitiated, small "l" means the philosophy, Big "L" means the political party). At first, it seems obvious.To have the liberty that libertarianism
espouses, employees should have the right to join or not join the union.Case closed.

But think about it a little deeper.If a private entity (company) wants to make a
private contract (closed shop agreement) with another private entity (union),
then to have the government involved is anti-liberty.Libertarianism doesn’t advocate smart liberties
or inclusive liberties; it advocates all liberties.Entities should be able to do whatever
foolish thing they want as long as it doesn’t infringe on another entity’s
liberty. The most important of these liberties is from government
intervention.Exceptions should be as rare as possible, only
what is necessary to maintain a society that provides a framework for liberty.

So for a pure libertarian, the State of
Wisconsin should not pass any laws requiring closed shop agreements,
prohibiting closed shop agreements, or even encouraging closed shop agreements (e.g.
through tax incentives).None of these
rises to the level of critical to maintain society. A closed shop agreement reduces the liberty of the potential anti-union employee to pursue a job at the company, but this is a much smaller violation, especially with the ability to pay the fee instead. Government intervention is philosophically much more severe.

So why do you think the Big “L” Libertarians are for Right
to Work laws and against closed shop agreements?Most of them are big “R” Republicans.Unions donate money to left leaning
candidates.Think there is a connection,
or am I being too cynical?

Ethnic cleansing is one of the worst crimes against
humanity.But if the massive migrations
among all of the warring countries in the Middle East results in definitive, well-defined zones of
Sunni, Shia, and Kurd, it could result in more stable countries in the end.Forced migrations always leave bitter hurts
that come back to haunt the evictor.But
when people are fleeing bombed out neighborhoods, perhaps where they end up
will feel like a step up, or at least good enough to mute the regret.

But this would only work if the world at large does a better
job at supporting refugees, planning resettlement, creating economic
opportunities for migrants, including them in the host's political process,
facilitating some assimilation, etc.The
last thing we need is 50-year refugee camps like we have among the
Palestinians. Just imagine 100 Gazas all over the Middle East.

I was imagining a peace process along these lines when I heard a BBC
report about Eastern Ukraine last night.In that case, you can't "split the difference, cut the rebelling
zones in half, and declare peace."My thought was if they split Donetsk and Luhansk in half - east and
west.Anyone in the west side who favors
the rebels can move to a town in the east side.They don't even have to leave their "home"
province."Same thing east to west
for loyalists. But "home province" is not the same as "home". That is why I question the viability.

I (we?) live in a culture where people move at the
drop of a hat.When your ancestors have
lived in the same town for 400 years, I can only imagine the difference in how
it would feel.The end of Fiddler on the
Roof comes to mind.The sad way that
Tevye and his neighbors just accepted being moved out of their town by the
Tsar's army and the sad-looking caravan of refugees that this caused.

Ironically, it was a weak parallel of this that led me to move to my studio apartment last year.I don't want to become attached to
"stuff," enabling me to move whenever I want without too much
regret.